text:
RECORD: Darwin, C. R. 1881. [Letter to Mrs. Emily Talbot on the mental and bodily development of infants, 1881]. Social science.—Infant education. The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 15, no. 2 (April): 206-7.
REVISION HISTORY: Scanned, text prepared and edited by John van Wyhe. RN1
NOTE: See record in the Freeman Bibliographical Database, enter its Identifier here.
The Committee on Education of the American Social Science Association has issued the following circular, with a view to draw the interest of parents to the stadia of mental development in their infant children. The project originated in the mind of the zealous and active Secretary of the committee, Mrs. Talbot, who has already collected a great mass of interesting facts, from which we hope to present selections from time to time in this Journal:
We have been made familiar with the habits of plants and animals from the careful investigations which have from time to time been published—the intelligence of animals, even, coming in for a due share of attention. One author alone contributes a book of one thousand pages upon "Mind in the Lower Animals." Recently some educators in this country have been quietly thinking that to study the natural development of a single child is worth more than a Noah's Ark full of animals. Little has been done in this study, at least little has been recorded. It is certain that a great many mothers might contribute observations of their own children's life and development that might be at some future time invaluable to the psychologist. In this belief the Education Department of the American Social Science Association has issued the accompanying register, and asks the parents of very young children to interest themselves in the subject.
1. By recognizing the importance of the study of the youngest infants.
2. By observing the simplest manifestations of their life and movements.
3. By answering fully and carefully the questions asked in the register.
4. By a careful record of the signs of development during the coming year, each observation to be verified, if possible, by other members of the family.
5. By interesting their friends in the subject and forwarding the results to the secretary.
6. Above all, by perseverance and exactness in recording these observations
[In our January number we printed the circular of Mrs. Talbot, Secretary of the Educational Committee of the American Social Science Association. The following letter has been received from Mr. Darwin on the subject of interest.—EDITOR.]
S.-E. R., July 19, 1881.
Dear Madam:1 In response to your wish, I have much pleasure in expressing the interest which I feel in your proposed investigation on the mental and bodily development of infants. Very little is at present accurately known on this subject, and I believe that isolated observations will add but little to our knowledge; whereas, tabulated results from a very large number of observations systematically made would probably throw much light on the sequence and period of development of the several faculties.
This knowledge would probably give a foundation for some improvement in our education of young children, and would show us whether the same system ought to be followed in all cases.
I will venture to specify a few points of inquiry which, as it seems to me, possess some scientific interest. For instance, does the education of the parents influence the mental powers of their children at any age, either at a very early or somewhat more advanced stage? This could, perhaps, be learned by schoolmasters or mistresses, if a large number of children were first classed according to age and their mental attainments, and afterward in accordance with the education of their parents, as far as this could be discovered.
As observation is one of the earliest faculties developed in young children, and as this power would probably be exercised in an equal degree by the children of educated and uneducated persons, it seems not impossible that any transmitted effect from education could be displayed only at a somewhat advanced age. It would be desirable to test statistically in a similar manner the truth of the often-repeated statement that colored children at first learn as quickly as white children, but that they afterward fall off in progress.
If it could be proved that education acted not only on the individual, but by transmission on the race—this would be a great encouragement to all working on this all-important subject. It is well known that children sometimes exhibit at a very early age strong special tastes, for which no cause can be assigned, although occasionally
1 Emily Fairbanks Talbot (1834-1900), American reformer and secretary of the Education Department of the American Social Science Association, Boston, Mass. A circular and register were issued by the Department soliciting answers to various questions. See Nature (28 April 1881): 617. Calendar: 13249. Also published in E. Talbot ed., Papers on infant development. Education Department of the American Social Science Association, January, 1882. Boston: Tolman & White; Darwin 1882; extracts in Nature 24 (13 October): 565; ML 2: 54 and elsewhere.
they may be accounted for by reversion to the taste or occupation of some progenitor; and it would be interesting to learn how far such early tastes are persistent and influence the future career of the individual. In some instances such tastes die away without apparently leaving any after-effect; but it would be desirable to know how far this is commonly the case, as we should then know whether it were important to direct, as far as this is possible, the early tastes of our children. It may be more beneficial that a child should follow energetically some pursuit of however trifling a nature, and thus acquire perseverance, than that he should be turned from it, because of no future advantage to him.
I will mention one other small point of inquiry in relation to very young children which may possibly prove important with respect to the origin of language; but it could be investigated only by persons possessing an accurate musical ear. Children, even before they can articulate, express some of their feelings and desires by noises uttered in different notes. For instance, they make an interrogative noise and others of assent and dissent in different tones; and it would, I think, be worth while to ascertain whether there is any uniformity in different children in the pitch of their voices under various frames of mind.
I fear that this letter can be of no use to you; but it will serve to show my sympathy and good wishes in your researches.
I beg leave to remain, dear madam, yours faithfully,
To Mrs. EMILY TALBOT.
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 28 November, 2022


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Residential Elevators Recalled for Repair by ThyssenKrupp Access Manufacturing Due to Fall Hazard
Residential Elevators Recalled for Repair by ThyssenKrupp Access Manufacturing Due to Fall Hazard
The following product safety recall was voluntarily conducted by the firm in cooperation with the CPSC. Consumers should stop using the product immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.
Name of Product: LEV II®, Volant and Rise residential elevators
Units: About 670
Manufacturer: ThyssenKrupp Access Manufacturing LLC, of Roanoke, Ill.
Hazard: The elevators door can unlock and open at a landing with no elevator car present, exposing the elevator shaft and posing a fall hazard to consumers.
Incidents/Injuries: None reported
Description: This recall involves LEV II, Volant and Rise residential elevators. The elevators were installed in residences with three or more floors. The elevators four-digit model number is part of the longer serial number. Model numbers included in this recall are RLWL for the LEV II, RLGL for the Volant and RLRC for the Rise. The model/serial number is printed in the owners manual and at the top of the elevators controller, which is mounted at the top of the elevator in the hoistway or shaft.
Sold by: Elevator dealers from December 2010 through August 2012 for between $16,000 and $26,000 installed.
Manufactured in: United States
Remedy: Consumers should stop using the elevators immediately if they see an E3 or E8 error code displayed on the elevator. Even if there is no E3 or E8 error code displayed, contact the firm to arrange for a free software upgrade for the elevator. The firms dealers are directly contacting consumers who purchased the recalled elevators.
Consumer Contact: For more information, contact ThyssenKrupp Access Manufacturing LLC at (800) 925-3100 between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, email the firm at firstname.lastname@example.com or visit the firms website at www.tkaccess.com and click on Important Recall Notice.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A Tale of Two Classes of Defendant and Lanny Breuer
By R Tamara de Silva
January 28, 2013
"swaying power such as has never in the world's history been trusted in the hands of mere private citizens,…after having created a system of quiet but irresistible corruption-will ultimately succeed in directing government itself. Under the American form of society, there is now no authority capable of effective resistance."
Henry Adams writing about the corruption of the Erie Railroad for the Westminster Review in 1870, he described corporate influence growing to the point of being uncheckable with political parties that would sacrifice principle for accommodation.
Last week, the Head of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer, announced his resignation. His resignation is remarkable only in so far that it draws attention to the enormity of what he would not do. Under Breuer's watch, leaving aside some high profile and related insider trading prosecutions, not one senior Wall Street executive was prosecuted or even charged (by some accounts- not even investigated) with anything having to do with the worst financial crisis in American history-a crisis that resulted in a bailout of Wall Street banks and the financial sector at a cost to American taxpayers of between $43.32-$59.75 billion.[1] A day before Lanny Breuer's resignation, PBS' Frontline aired an investigation about the failure of the Justice Department to prosecute a single senior banker involved in the mortgage crisis called, "The Untouchables." During this same time that the Department of Justice refused to go after a single head of a Wall Street firm,
they took a particularly hard line on a torture whistleblower (not the torturers), and many financial criminals responsible for not the billions caused by elite Wall Street firms but between thousands to hundreds of thousands like elderly couples for possible pension fraud, an appraiser in Florida, individuals who committed bank fraud by lying on mortgage applications and other criminals like pot smokers and Aaron Swartz. It is not that I condone wrong-doing,
only a record of selective prosecution on steroids. Lanny Breuer's Justice Department exposed its full fury to the chubs of the criminal justice systems while systematically saving the titans and whales.
[1] http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/briefing-room/reports/105/Documents105/June%202012%20Monthly%20Report%20to%20Congress.pdf
Prosecutorial Discretion and Sympathy for the Titan
One of the reasons, Lanny Breuer gave for the non-prosecution of a senior Wall Street executive is sympathy for employees and shareholders. In his interview with Martin Smith of Frontline, Mr. Breuer repeated a specific if selective, empathy, wholly at odds with the charge he had been given by Senator Kaufman to investigate and hold to account all those responsible for the financial crisis.[2] This selective empathy is also wholly at odds with the unbiased way in which most of us naively think justice is administered and prosecutions are sought. By the way, after this interview aired, Martin Smith states that he was called by the Justice Department and told that they would never cooperate with PBS again.[3]
In September of last year, Mr. Breuer admitted his particular empathy towards the plight of the largest of Wall Street banks when he addressed the New York Bar Association and said,
In my conference room, over the years, I have heard sober predictions that a company or bank might fail if we indict, that innocent employees could lose their jobs, that entire industries may be affected, and even that global markets will feel the effects. Sometimes – though, let me stress, not always – these presentations are compelling.
In reaching every charging decision, we must take into account the effect of an indictment on innocent employees and shareholders, just as we must take into account the nature of the crimes committed and the pervasiveness of the misconduct. I personally feel that it's my duty to consider whether individual employees with no responsibility for, or knowledge of, misconduct committed by others in the same company are going to lose their livelihood if we indict the corporation. In large multi-national companies, the jobs of tens of thousands of employees can be at stake.
And, in some cases, the health of an industry or the markets are a real factor. Those are the kinds of considerations in white collar crime cases that literally keep me up at night, and which must play a role in responsible enforcement.
When the only tool we had to use in cases of corporate misconduct was a criminal indictment, prosecutors sometimes had to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.[4]
It is odd that this same Justice Department did not take sympathy into account in demanding that Aaron Swartz serve 35 years or for that matter, the plight of all smaller defendants. The omnibus catchall Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA") could make criminals of many of us because it seeks to criminalize the use of a computer without authorization but no where defines what "authorization" means.
When the government freezes a defendant's assets or seizes property even before a filing of charges making it impossible for them to pay for a decent lawyer (assuming they can even afford one), does it really care how the defendant (before being proven guilty) manages to eat or live in the interim of years it can take from investigation to sentencing?
Where was the sympathy for Senator Ted Stevens?
Was it anything but a sheer lack of empathy that led to the career-ending prosecution of a six term Senator and the deliberate withholding of exculpatory evidence in his case?
What about the many cases where defendants are exonerated by physical evidence that the prosecution possessed but did not reveal at the time? Where is the sympathy for the years or decades of a life that are lost because exculpatory evidence is not released or DNA evidence kits are not processed?
Or is the empathy that Lanny Breuer refers to, as selectively held as its application under Lanny Breuer's tenor suggests?
Conflicts of Money
Money influences prosecutions. Consider the tale of two men performing the identical act in the criminal law Jon Corzine and Russell Wasenfdorf, Sr. Corzine was one of President Obama's elite bundlers in 2011 and 2012. He campaigned heavily for the President as governor of New Jersey, and held private fundraisers for President Obama in his home even after MF Global went bankrupt and $1.6 billion of customer funds went missing in October 2011. The Justice Department announced that they would not prosecute him.
It was discovered in June 2012 that Peregrine Financial Group CEO, Russell Wasendorf Sr., like Corzine at MF Global, had tapped into customer segregated funds to the tune of $215 million.
Russell Wasendorf Sr was arrested and criminally charged later same that month. Same act-missing customer funds that were by law not to touched-but a far disparate prosecution.[5]
Under Lanny Breuer, the Justice Department announced it would not go after Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs' employees were the second largest single contributor to President Obama in 2008 contributing $1,013,091.[6]
Goldman Sachs is also one of the largest clients of Mr. Eric Holder's lawyer firm Covington & Burling.
Speaking of Covington & Burling, Lanny Breuer worked at Covington along with Attorney General Eric Holder.
Their firm's largest clients were many of the Wall Street banks that were involved in the securitization of mortgage debt that contributed to the financial crisis.
According to Reuters, Attorney General Holder and Lanny Breuer were expected to recuse themselves (a functional impossibility) under federal conflict of interest laws from Department of Justice decisions related to many of Wall Street's largest banks. Of course they have not admitted to doing so in any instance of which I am aware.[7]
Abacus and Such
Goldman's Abacus scheme would fit into the most selective definitions of fraud. Goldman invented Abacus, according to an SEC civil complaint and an investor, to fail so that one of its largest hedge fund clients, Paulson & Co, could short it.[8] In the meantime, Goldman sold Abacus bonds to many other investors all the while allowing Goldman to take in large investment banking fees from the sale and from the purchase. The problem is,
the investors were not aware that Goldman's largest hedge fund client along with Goldman Sachs was betting against them and that as such Goldman Sachs may have a conflict of interest in designing what went into Abacus. Goldman claimed that somewhere within all the disclosure statements was a reference to all this. The Department of Justice announced it would not seek any criminal fraud charges against Goldman. Goldman Sachs settled the civil suit for $550 million, which is not a lot for a company that earns billions of dollars per quarter.
On November 28, 2011, Judge Jed S. Rakoff rejected what would have been the sixth civil settlement agreement between Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and the SEC since 2003 for $285 million. Citigroup had sold $1 billion in mortgage-bonds through a vehicle called Class V Funding III, without disclosing that it was betting against $500 million of those assets-in essence offering something to its customers and not disclosing that it would be betting against its customers. The Department of Justice was not about to seek criminal fraud charges against Citigroup either.
Civil settlements between the SEC and other parties are alternatively called consent decrees and they are a far cry from criminal prosecution. Nor do they deter misconduct because no admission of wrong-doing is required and the fines are pin money to the banks.
It is in the public's interest to prevent fraud upon the market and to prevent the type of financial engineering solely for the sake of fees that can lead to catastrophic losses ultimately borne by society as a whole. The type of hyperleveraged machinations, not understood by the banks themselves that wind up privatizing profit and publicizing loss. The problem with selective prosecution of financial crime or any crime, is that it undermines the very idea of justice, whose force and majesty lie in its fair and unbiased application. When the Executive branch's justice department seeks fines from banks which fees are so small as to be written off as a rational and good cost of doing business, while simultaneously pursuing prosecutions against smaller parties and the comparatively disenfranchised, it is no longer dealing out justice.
It is selectively doling out punishments to those not in its favor.@
R. Tamara de Silva
[1] http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/briefing-room/reports/105/Documents105/June%202012%20Monthly%20Report%20to%20Congress.pdf
[2] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/untouchables/lanny-breuer-financial-fraud-has-not-gone-unpunished/
[5] Detailed explanation of MF Global is available at: https://www.timelyobjections.com/why-mf-globals-last-days-may-have-been-criminal/


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A businessman walks past the sculpture entitled 'City Wing' on Threadneedle Street in the City of London, the capital's financial district, on 17th June 2019, in London, England. This ten-metre-tall bronze sculpture is by President of the Royal Academy of Arts, Christopher Le Brun, commissioned by Hammerson in 2009. 'The City Wing' and has been cast by Morris Singer Art Founders, reputedly the oldest fine art foundry in the world.
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text:
Do there exist proofs of security for primitives like hash functions (based on a block cipher) in the PRP model.
I often see proofs in the random oracle model (for hash function based on compression function) and proofs in the ideal cipher model (for hash function based on block cipher).
Are there proofs of such primitive in a real world model?


text:
I wanted to use the ebgaramond font and I can get it to work using 'latex' however, there is no boldface font available with this package. Is it possible to set up the LaTeX document such that it will get the boldfaced font from some other package (eg. times or euler, etc.)?
Many thanks!


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Taipei Family Trail
Taipei is a city tailormade for family visits, and our tours get the best from the city for mum, dad and the kids
Tour Details
- 2 nights twin-share accommodation at a comfortable and well-located Taipei hotel
- private vehicle and driver
- tour leader
- all activities and entrance fees as listed
- 2 breakfasts, 1 lunch & 1 dinner
Taipei is a city tailormade for family visits, and our first day begins with a trip to see the pandas at Muzha Zoo, followed by a ride in the world's fastest elevator to the top of the world's second highest building, the Taipei 101. After lunch we'll take a trip to Chiang Kaishek Memorial where we'll watch the changing of the guard to the backdrop of this beautiful marble monument. In the evening we'll enjoy dinner at a local puppet theater, and have the chance to try our hand at Taiwanese puppetry. On the second day we'll drive out of the city to Yangmingshan National Park. Here, within a stone's throw of downtown Taipei, volcanic fumeroles belch out yellow sulphurous gases amidst a seemingly lunar landscape. From Yangmingshan we'll head north towards the ocean, stopping at Yeliou where we'll have lunch before exploring the otherworldly eroded rock formations which line the coast. From Yeliou it's not too far back to Taipei and our hotel. The evening is free, and the tour ends after breakfast on day 3.
Notes: We can also arrange family trips to a host of other great Taipei family destinations.


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Whether you have a PSP or a Vita, you're good to go for ad-hoc multiplayer.
If you're planning on getting a Vita but your friends are stuck in the PSP era, never fear. Sony realizes that since Vita will have access to the same downloadable library as the PSP, there will be a lot of crossover between games. As a result, it's designing the Vita with the capability to engage in ad-hoc multiplayer with both Vita and PSP systems.
Ad-hoc multiplayer games like the Monster Hunter series generally aren't as big in the West as they are in Japan. Even so, Western PSPs have a fair selection of local multiplayer games, with series ranging from Star Wars to Ratchet & Clank. Not every downloadable game with have Vita/PSP support, however, and Sony has not indicated whether UMD games on PSP will work in multiplayer with downloaded games on Vita.
Sony has confirmed the feature for Japan, although this does not necessarily mean that it will see a Western release. Still, unless the feature ends up costing Sony more money than it's worth, Western Vita/PSP pairs should be able to enjoy cooperative Killzone: Liberation just like their Japanese counterparts.
Source: Siliconera


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Public Records Requests submitted under RCW 42.56, the Public Records Act, should be submitted through our online Public Records Portal at https://bainbridgewa.nextrequest.com. You can also search the public records request database for records previously provided to the public. Please note that you will be required to create an account for the Public Records Portal and provide at least one contact method.
Access to Municipal Court records is governed by court rules and not the Public Records Act. For information on requesting Municipal Court records, please go to the Municipal Court page.
Show All Answers
There are several ways to watch a City Council meeting:
The City Council agendas are posted on the City's website at bainbridgewa.gov/1101.
You can access the page by selecting the "Agendas and Minutes" button on the right side of the City's homepage and at the bottom of this page.
The agenda is published after 4:30 p.m. on the Friday before each meeting.
Previous Council agendas, meeting videos, and meeting minutes are provided in the Archives section on the lower section of the Agendas & Minutes page.
You can also find Council agenda packets and meeting minutes organized by year in City Documents.
You can email your comments to City Councilmembers at firstname.lastname@example.com, or you can comment during the Public Comment portion of City Council business meetings the second and fourth Tuesday evening of every month. Public comment is also taken during public hearings on certain ordinances.
Contact information for council members is located on the Council page. You can also click on each member's name on that page to access individual pages. You can contact the entire Council by emailing firstname.lastname@example.com.
The City's homepage has a "box" for Public Records on the right side of the page.
Select this box to go to the Public Records page where you will find a link to the public records portal, information on how the City processes public records requests, a link to the City's financial transparency portal, a link to City Documents, a link to online permits, and a link to the Council agenda page.
The City is not required to permit public inspection and copying of records for which public disclosure of the record is prohibited, restricted or limited by state or federal statute or regulation.
RCW 42.56 describes the records that are exempt from the Washington State Public Records Act. In addition, other statutes (such as statutes relating to juvenile records and health care information) may exempt or prohibit disclosure of other documents and information. Also, we are prohibited by statute from disclosing lists of individuals for commercial purposes.
The Municipal Research and Services Center maintains an up-to-date list of current exemptions and prohibitions on their website at www.mrsc.org.
The simplest requests for immediately available records (Category 1) are responded to within 5 business days, and often on the date of the request. For all other requests, the City will provide a written response to the requester within five business days with a reasonable estimate of the time necessary to make the records available. Category 2 requests usually require between 5 and 30 business days, Category 3 records requests may require several weeks to several months. Category 4 records requests are the most complex, involve thousands of records, and often require review by the City Attorney. They may require several weeks to a year or more. For Category 3 and 4 requests, we respond in installments, supplying a portion of the responsive records each month until the request is complete.
To learn more about the City's public records request process, you can read a summary or the City's Public Records Administrative Rules.
The Bainbridge Island Municipal Code is on the City's website. You can find the Code by selecting the Municipal Code button in the middle of the City's homepage.
Please note that the most recent ordinances may not be codified.
Ordinances and resolutions are available in City Documents on the City's website and are organized by year.
If you believe the City is at fault for an incident or accident resulting in loss, injury or damages, you can file a claim requesting payment. Claims must be filed using the official Claim for Damages form and submitted to the City Clerk. Instructions may be found at https://www.bainbridgewa.gov/568.
Kitsap County manages real property records for Bainbridge Island. Their resources include a parcel search and a database of recorded documents.
Kitsap County administers primaries and elections and manages the voter registration process for Kitsap County voters. You can find information on elections and elected officials on their website.
No, please contact the Finance Department at 206-780-8668 for information on business licenses.


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Victorian Premier, John Brumby, yesterday promised every doctor in the state's public hospital system would be issued with an Apple iPad if his incumbent Labor Government was returned to power in the state's upcoming election.
The pledge was listed as a minor item in Labor's health policy released yesterday. The Premier stated his party was committed to giving doctors the tools they needed to provide the best care to Victorian patients.
"As technology evolves, so do the tools that our doctors need. We will provide $12 million to buy iPads for every doctor working in Victoria's public hospital system, so they have easy access to time-critical clinical information at a patient's bedside," Brumby said.
The Victorian Coalition was less specific in its promise of new technology for hospitals, releasing its own health policy, but its own list of promises did contain a pledge that it, too, would implement new "mobile technology" if it took power — although the Coalition's policy appeared to be more focused on electronic health solutions in general.
"A national e-health identifier has the potential to cut costs and provide better quality health care," the Coalition wrote, referring to Federal Labor's $466.7 million health identifier project, which is gradually gathering steam in the wake of the Federal Election.
"The Coalition supports the introduction of a national e-health identifier and its incorporation into the Victorian health system," the policy document continued, "with appropriate protections and ironclad privacy controls, and will support and examine the adoption of mobile technology solutions."
Read about the security risks concerned with the iPad
According to a report published by the Victorian Government in 2006, about 10 per cent of the state's 208,000 staff employed in public hospitals were "salaried medical staff", a term which includes doctors, but not allied health professionals such as pharmacists, physiotherapists and nurses.
That number was growing steadily each year. For example, in the 2005/06 financial year, the doctor workforce is listed as growing by 211.
Apple's most basic iPad is the 16GB Wi-Fi version, which does not come with 3G mobile broadband included. If Labor were to purchase one of these iPads for each of the salaried medical officers listed in the 2006 report, it would cost about $13.08 million. This meant the Brumby camp's estimate of $12 million is within the ballpark required to outfit the state with more than 20,000 iPads.
Discover the CIO who bought 4500 iPads to show off
The news comes as Victoria's Labor Government continues to demonstrate a great deal of interest in the iPad platform.
In July, the state unveiled a program where 500 iPads will be delivered to a number of hospitals around the state — costing about $500,000. The trial is slated to take place in January 2011.
"The iPads will allow doctors and nurses to access any web-enabled application run by their hospital as they move around the hospital, as well as allowing them to tap into health information resources," Health Minister, Daniel Andrews, said at the time.
"The iPads will connect via the Wi-Fi networks that allow secure, safe wireless connectivity within the hospital while not affecting other important and sensitive electronic patient care equipment."
That announcement came several months after Brumby announced the state would buy more than 500 iPads to be distributed to schools in another trial of the tablet devices.
Check out CIO Australia's Mobile Wireless & Convergence Section to read about more devices.


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With help from a common aquarium pet and a recently released online database of human genetic variation, a collaborative team of Penn State researchers has found what could be the most important skin color gene identified to date.
The team, led by cancer geneticist Keith Cheng, a Jake Gittlen Cancer Research Foundation researcher in the Penn State Cancer Institute at Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, in collaboration with University Park anthropologist Mark Shriver, found that a change in just one amino acid in one gene plays a major role in determining why people of European descent have lighter skin than people of African descent.
The find could lead to further research using the protein coded by the pigmentation gene as a target for treatment of malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, as well as to research on ways to modify skin color without damaging it by tanning or using harsh chemical lighteners.
The findings will be published as the cover story in the Dec. 16 edition of Science magazine.
The genetic determination of human skin color is one of biology's enduring mysteries.
Previous studies on pigmentation have identified more than 100 genes involved in pigment production. Alterations in some of these genes are associated with disorders such as albinism, which causes very light skin, but also vision problems. However, most of the genes responsible for normal differences in skin pigmentation remained unknown. The gene identified by Cheng's team -- called SLC24A5 -- previously had not been suspected to be involved in pigmentation.
The pigmentation discovery was an unexpected offshoot of cancer research Cheng began a decade ago using zebrafish, a common aquarium pet that is widely used as a model organism for studying the genetics of development. The zebrafish reproduces rapidly, and many of its genes are similar to humans, which makes it a good model for studying genetic alterations and their roles in cancer, Cheng said.
The similarities between fish and humans extend to the pigment cells, which contain pigment granules called melanosomes. In people of European descent, the melanosomes are fewer, smaller, and lighter than those from people of West African ancestry, while the melanosomes of East Asians show intermediate properties. Cheng's team found that a zebrafish variant called "golden" also had fewer, smaller and less-heavily pigmented melanosomes than normal fish.
This clue suggested the gene mechanisms responsible for the change in zebrafish also might be involved in variation in human skin color. The researchers found that the lighter pigmentation of golden zebrafish is caused by a mutation that cuts short a certain protein -- referred to as slc24a5. Adding the normal zebrafish protein to the golden version resulted in fish with darker coloring. Victor Canfield, assistant professor of pharmacology in the College of Medicine, found that the closely related genes were present in all vertebrates. The team asked whether the human version of the gene also could work in zebrafish and found that it did.
Cheng then sought Shriver's help in determining whether this gene plays a role in human pigmentation. Shriver's group has been focused for the past eight years on the evolutionary genetics and physiology of normal variation in human pigmentation.
The importance of the work extends beyond pigmentation, Cheng and Shriver say.
"We know so little about the genetic and evolutionary architecture of human traits," said Shriver, associate professor of anthropology. "We can not expect to use human genetics to understand complex diseases most effectively without first working out how fundamental characteristics, such as eye, hair and skin color, are determined."
"Working out the details of pigmentation with help from model systems like zebrafish is a great paradigm for seeking understanding of diseases such as diabetes or heart disease," Cheng said.
The team started with the recently released HapMap -- a free and publicly accessible database of DNA sequence variation in the human genome. When researchers looked at variations within the human SLC24A5 gene, they found that the protein specified by the gene was identical in all populations studied, except for the amino acid at one position. At that position, West Africans and East Asians shared the same ancestral sequence with other vertebrates, including zebrafish and chimpanzees. In contrast, all individuals in the European population tested showed a change in one amino acid.
According to Shriver, the results are indicative of a "selective sweep," which is a signal of selection for a particular gene variant.
Either a variant is selected for because the trait produced is better suited to the current environment than other traits and other traits are less capable of competing, or the variant is sexually selected. Sexual selection occurs because individuals choose mates with certain characteristics that are more attractive or that indicate better reproductive potential.
To verify the importance of the amino acid change, Shriver examined the SLC24A5 gene in populations of mixed European and West African ancestry. Individuals with the European form of SLC24A5 tended to have lighter skin than those with the ancestral form of the gene. Those findings suggested that this variation contributes between 25 percent and 38 percent of the range of skin color in this population.
The team speculates that well-known variations in European eye and hair color may have been made possible by the alteration in SLC24A5. However, they say that the patterns of DNA variation indicate that the lighter skin color of East Asians is due to variation in genes that have yet to be identified.
Scientists have long hypothesized that decreased skin pigmentation was an adaptive change that made it possible for humans to live outside the tropics, since sunlight is essential to generate the vitamin D required to prevent rickets, a condition causing bones to become weak. Team members suggest that the gene they have identified played an important role in that adaptation in Europeans.
The National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Pennsylvania Tobacco Settlement Fund, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Jake Gittlen Cancer Research Foundation supported portions of this research.
The Penn State Hershey Medical Center team included Cheng; Canfield; Rebecca L. Lamason, Manzoor-Ali P.K. Mohideen, Jason R. Mest, Andrew C. Wong, Michael C. Aros, Vanessa R. Humphreville and Jessica L. Moore from the Jake Gittlen Cancer Research Foundation; Jasper E. Humbert and Soniya Sinha from the Intercollege Degree Program in Genetics; Wei Zhao from the Department of Health Evaluation Sciences; and Gang Ning and Izabela Makalowska from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.
The Penn State University Park team included Shriver, Heather L. Norton and Xianyun Mao.
Other members of the research team were Michael J. Jurynec and David J. Grunwald, University of Utah; Pudur Jagadeeswaran, University of North Texas; Paul M. McKeigue and David O'Donnell, Conway Institute, University College, Dublin, Ireland; Rick Kittles, The Ohio State University; Esteban J. Parra, University of Toronto at Mississauga; and Nancy J. Mangini, Indiana University School of Medicine-Northwest.
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Materials provided by Penn State. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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text: I've looked at many of the threads on colors, etc, so if I've missed this one before, sorry. I am a huge fan of the search though. Anyways, I was wondering if any of the colors matched from piece to piece. For instance, does the red/rust color on the helmet match the color of the gauntlets (rotj version obviously), and the red on the jet pack? Are the shoulder pieces, knees, and part of the jet pack all the same color? Are the chest pieces the same color as anything else? Thanks all!


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Name: Ivan Baldry, MA (Cantab), PhD (Sydney), FHEA, FRAS
Address: Astrophysics Research Institute,
Liverpool John Moores University,
IC2, Liverpool Science Park, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
Phone: (0 or +44) 151 231 2915
Fax: (0 or +44) 151 231 2921
Email: i. "surname" @ ljmu . ac . uk
Research interests: galaxy properties, population statistics and evolution; cosmology; astronomical instrumentation; stellar pulsations.
LJMU: I started a research and teaching position at Liverpool John Moores University in October 2005. My research is mainly in the area of galaxy properties, population statistics and evolution. This includes: measuring the galaxy stellar mass function, in particular to the lowest possible dwarf galaxy masses; how galaxies vary as a function of environment and how these relate to the forces shaping galaxy evolution; and measuring the properties of galaxy groups and how these relate to cosmological structure formation. Essential data are obtained from galaxy redshift surveys. The major surveys that I am working on are the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey and the Wide Area Vista Extragalactic Survey (WAVES).
JHU: At Johns Hopkins Univ., Physics and Astronomy Dept. from 2001 to 2005, my research was mainly in the areas of galaxy properties and evolution, and cosmology. I worked on analysis of the cosmic star-formation history from the present day spectra of galaxies and analysis of the bimodality in the color-magnitude distribution of galaxies. For this, I used data from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey main galaxy sample. For public interest, Karl Glazebrook and I created the Cosmic Spectrum page, which explains the color of the universe.
AAO: I was employed by the Anglo-Australian Observatory (Epping Lab) in 1999 and 2000, mainly working on various instrument design projects. These included: OSIRIS, which incorporates tunable imaging using a gap-scanning Fabry-Perot etalon and spectroscopy using volume phase holographic (VPH) gratings; ATLAS, a proposed dual-beam spectrograph design also using VPH gratings, a precursor study for AAOmega; and GIRMOS, a proposed infrared multi-object spectrograph using deployable integral-field units.
USyd: I completed a PhD in 1999, studying in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney (Institute of Astronomy), supervised by Tim Bedding. My research was on stellar oscillations, in particular; rapidly oscillating Ap stars, Delta Scuti stars and Cepheids. The title for my thesis was `Time-Series Spectroscopy of Pulsating Stars'.
Press releases: Discoveries of faint galaxies using supernovae (2019); Universe shines twice as bright (2008); Color of the Universe Corrected by Astronomers (2002); Astronomers take the pulse of a Sun-like star (2001).
Links: -
data, figures and documents from my astrophysics research page;
list of my publications;
teaching relativity and cosmology links;
scaled solar system, on an interactive map of the Earth;
description of the cosmic spectrum and the color of the universe, and the color through time.
MSc in Data Science links, | astronomy links, | squash links. |


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In an effort to make Islamic educational resources accessible to all, we are pleased to provide these resources for free. We rely on the support of our generous donors to continue creating project booklets, pamphlets, and other resources for free download. Help us continue with these efforts by joining this generous group of donors and partake in the thawaab of all these projects!
Steps to Perfection is an Islamic curriculum designed under the guidance of Moulana Nabi Raza Abidi. The most recent revision (August 2020) includes a fun and exciting layout, graphics, and stories. Furthermore, the curriculum entails guides for teachers, interactive activities, and age-appropriate language, which make learning Islam fun and easy! Student workbooks are also now available!


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The meteor that blew up over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk 11 days ago has provided a new focus for the effort to establish an international asteroid warning system, one of NASA's top experts on the issue says.
Lindley Johnson, the executive for the Near Earth Object Observation Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said that the Feb. 15 impact is certain to become "by far the best-documented meteor and meteorite in history" — but at the time, he and his colleagues could hardly believe it was happening.
"Our first reaction was, 'This can't be. ... This must be some test of a missile that's gone awry,'" Johnson told NBC News.
The Chelyabinsk meteor exploded at an estimated altitude of 12 miles (20 kilometers) over the city of 1.1 million in Russia's Urals Mountains, setting off a shock wave that blew out windows, caused an estimated $33 million in property damage and injured more than 1,200 people.
It was doubly coincidental for Johnson and his colleagues: The meteor was thought to have been caused by the breakup of a 17-meter-wide (55-foot-wide), 10,000-ton asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere and released the equivalent of 500 kilotons of TNT in explosive energy. All this happened just hours before a 45-meter-wide (150-foot-wide) asteroid, capable of setting off a city-killing blast, passed within 17,200 miles (27,680 kilometers) of our planet. Adding to that coincidence, researchers from around the world were gathered in Vienna for talks aimed at moving forward with an international network to deal with ... asteroid threats!
The spectacle in Russia "certainly brought renewed interest to our efforts here," said Johnson, a leader of NASA's delegation to the Vienna talks.
He said the recommendations from the researchers were "well-received" and are moving up the ladder to the next phase in a U.N.-led process for addressing outer-space threats. An action plan could be considered by the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space during its next meeting in Vienna in June.
Johnson summarized the three main points of the recommendations:
- Set up an international asteroid warning network, or IAWN, supported with existing detection assets but incorporating additional contributions. "The basis of such a network already exists," Johnson said, thanks to NASA, the European Space Agency, the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center and the NEODyS asteroid-tracking center at the University of Pisa in Italy. NASA also has partnered with the U.S. Air Force to share tracking data about near-Earth objects. Just this week, a $25 million Canadian-built satellite known as NEOSSat was launched to look for small asteroids in Earth-threatening orbits.
- Bring the world's space agencies together in a new working group called the Space Mission Planning and Advisory Group — also known as SMPAG (pronounced like "Same Page"). The group's purpose, Johnson said, would be to "get all the agencies on the 'same page' as far as assessing what capabilities could be brought to bear should there be a threatening asteroid detected."
- Put asteroid experts in contact with countries around the world, to advise disaster response agencies about the nature of a potential impact event — that is, the area expected to be affected, the potential effects and the scale of the evacuation if necessary. "It's an offshoot of the warning network," Johnson said. If the asteroid behind the Russian meteor had been detected in advance, for example, the expert network might have advised emergency workers about the potential for a midair blast and the resulting shock wave (although Johnson said he was "surprised" by the shock wave's effect).
Until last year, NASA spent about $4 million a year to track near-Earth objects, or NEOs, and Johnson said the program "has accomplished quite a bit in the relatively short time that it's been in existence." About 95 percent of the potentially threatening asteroids bigger than a kilometer (half-mile) wide have been detected. However, now NASA is working on charting the asteroids down to a width of 100 meters (330 feet). To fund that more difficult task, the annual funding level for NEO research was raised to $20 million a year.
NASA is using that money to beef up its capabilities for spotting smaller asteroids, through programs such as the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, which is due to get $5 million over the next five years. Less than a million dollars a year is going toward studies aimed at figuring out what to do if a threatening asteroid is found, Johnson said. After all, you have to identify the risky rocks before you can do anything about them. The potential strategies range from diverting it gently with the aid of gravity tractors or space paintball guns, to blasting it with nukes, Bruce Willis-style.
"It really depends on the scenario that we'd be faced with," Johnson said. "It depends on how big the object is. It depends on how long we have to do something about it. And if we do the search-and-detection job right, we will find a potential hazard many years if not decades before it becomes an immediate threat. There may be technologies available at that time that we never thought about. I don't get too worked up about trying to find an immediate technology that we've got to have right now to do that. Our focus is to find them as early as we can, and have the maximum amount of time to do something about it."
Update for 7:30 p.m. ET Feb. 26: Looking for a practical tip? The large majority of the people injured by the meteor blast were hurt by flying glass, which led Johnson to give this advice during a Vienna news conference: "When you see a white flash and a large trail in the sky, it's probably not a good time to stand at the window and look at it, because it may be a blast coming."
Update for 8:15 p.m. ET Feb. 26: As reported in Technology Review's Physics arXiv Blog, Colombian researchers used video from dashboard cameras and other sources to reconstruct the orbital path of the Russian meteor — and they classified it as an Apollo asteroid, a type of space rock whose path crosses Earth's orbit. That's consistent with NASA's analysis, which said the asteroid traced an orbit that ranged between the main asteroid belt and the region of outer space inside Earth's orbit.
"The preliminary orbit indicates it takes about 2.1 years to go around the sun once ... so this thing was out at its farthest distance from the sun roughly a year ago," Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environments Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, told reporters during a Feb. 15 teleconference.
The space rock was on its way back out toward the main asteroid belt, coming from Earth's sunward side, when it entered the atmosphere and blew up. That's why it wasn't possible to predict the impact in advance: At a width of 55 feet, the object was too small to show up in traditional sky surveys, and it would have been lost in the sun's glare during its final approach.
So far, searchers have recovered just bits and pieces of the shattered space boulder. "The largest I've heard is a kilogram and a half," or about three pounds, Johnson told NBC News.
More about asteroids:
- How about blasting 'em with lasers?
- How to 'hear' the Russian meteor
- Asteroids vs. comets: Threats compared
- NBCNews.com archive on asteroids
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.


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Climate action needs to be part of city planning - urban leaders
Samuel Mintz
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – From Durban, South Africa, to West Chester, Pennsylvania, local and municipal governments are trying to do their part to slow the advance of global climate change and adapt their communities to new climate realities, as laid out in the latest IPCC report by scientists this week.
Their methods vary, and focus on everything from better education to cutting emissions. Their success varies as well. Some have completed ambitious projects, while others struggle for the smallest amounts of attention and funding. Assistance from national governments or international institutions can be spotty, if it comes at all.
Action on "climate change is often thought of as a voluntary activity for local governments," said Maryke van Staden, a programme manager for ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability. "They have the mandate for other things, but climate change is normally a national government mandate. So both in terms of budget and capacity, it's quite often not at hand in municipalities."
"The cities that have been able to move on it have established a priority and embedded it into their whole system," she said.
The city of Durban, South Africa, is one of those. Despite being one of the poorest large cities in the country, it has turned itself into a global model for local-level climate change adaptation.
The Durban Adaptation Charter, passed at UN climate negotiations held in Durban in 2011, commits local governments around the world to take adaptation seriously and act on it to a reasonable degree. It has been signed by more than 1,100 local governments or organisations, spanning the globe from Norway to Argentina.
One example of an initiative in Durban itself is the city's "green roof" project, which has "highlighted the value of green roofs in encouraging inner-city biodiversity, also as a potential source of inner-city food security and a tool to reduce the impacts of the urban heat island and increased storm water runoff," according to a report produced by the city's climate protection managers.
Debra Roberts heads Durban's Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department, where she has been working for 10 years. Over that time, she has learned difficult lessons about local climate change policy, experiencing "some good successes, some very disastrous failures, but all learning experiences along the way."
"Durban really stands apart from many other cities around the world in that our work is predominantly adaptation based," Roberts said. She explained that of the two main types of climate change action – adaptation to climate change impacts and mitigation of climate changing emissions - adaptation is more suited to local governments because it is very location-specific, compared to mitigation which needs to take place on a global scale.
"Adaptation is local," she said. "Mitigation is a much more international response, because there's one singular problem, and there are a limited set of tools to address that. It doesn't matter where that carbon dioxide is produced or sucked out of the atmosphere. Adaptation is context specific. The adaptive needs of Durban are very different to the adaptive needs of Cape Town."
Beyond that recognition, the obstacles to acting on adaptation, or even talking about it, are many, Roberts said.
"The challenge landscape is so complex, one can't really suss out one discreet element and say this is the biggest one," she said. "It's the interplay that creates the problem. It's a combination, for example, of politicians who don't believe that climate change is real combined with the fact that we had no initial funding, combined with the fact that there's such a huge brain drain (from emigration from South Africa), combined with the fact that the development agendas are overwhelming."
But despite those challenges, in Durban, at least, the local governing body, starting from essentially very little, has made significant progress.
One example of the work done in Durban is ambitious reforestation work taking place near the city. As part of green development efforts surrounding the 2010 World Cup, which took place in Durban and other cities in South Africa, a number of large-scale community reforestation initiatives were established near the city, the first of which was located in the buffer zone around a landfill.
According to a report by the city leadership, "this project created jobs for local community members in managing the nursery and planting the trees on site, and provided others with the opportunity to become 'treepreneurs' by growing locally sourced indigenous seedlings for the project."
In implementing Durban's green push, "there was no grand plan in the beginning because there was no precedent and we didn't know enough. What we've done is taken small steps, learned within the context of taking those steps, and either changed direction or built on the previous work to take it forward," Roberts said.
The keys to success, she added, are patience and intuition.
"These complex problems are not amenable to logical, linear solutions. It's about playing at the socio-institutional landscape, it's about building champions in the right places, it's about positioning power bases relative to other power bases in a way that gives you opportunities, both political and economic … It's about being opportunistic and knowing when to step forward and when to step back," she said.
On a much smaller scale, it can sometimes be difficult for local community activists for climate action to be heard amid a din of interests, or to get proposals past everything from annoyed neighboring towns to apathetic governments.
In West Chester, Pennsylvania, a small university town 40 km (25 miles) west of Philadelphia, a volunteer, ad-hoc committee of the local governing council has been unsuccessfully advocating for the renewal of a passenger rail service to Philadelphia since 2006.
West Chester was the start of a rail line that went to Philadelphia until 1986, when that section of the line was discontinued due to track deterioration and low ridership, according to a case study provided by ICLEI.
In recent years, automobile use has risen while public transportation use has fallen, meaning that West Chester's transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions have climbed.
Community activists would like to renovate the rail line and renew rail service, as a way of cutting those emissions. But various challenges have gotten in the way, including a lack of money, bureaucracy, politics and a "not-in-my-backyard" attitude about the rail line from neighbouring communities.
"The challenge is to divert public money from road repair and expansion (funded by gasoline taxes) toward public transportation projects (funded by sporadic legislation for specific projects) to meet the needs of the next generation of commuters," said Jim Wylie, head of the West Chester Borough Leaders United for Emissions Reduction (BLUER) committee on transportation.
But making such changes has been far from easy. One of the keys to success, he said, is being ready to use whatever limited funding becomes available, and having a plan ready for whatever becomes available next.
"A big part of politics is setting priorities on what we should do with our collective pile of tax dollars," he said. "But you can do a lot with existing funding, if you are willing to wait for the right opportunity."
For instance, he said, "when that road is re-paved and re-striped, add a bike lane. When a new development is proposed for Route 3, encourage the developer to put in new sidewalks and a bus stop on Route 3. I find that a lot can be done just by supporting the existing plans that the professional planners have written down."
And political timing is as important as financial timing, according to Wylie. "The short game, in my mind, is recognizing that, at least in Pennsylvania, we tend to swing from liberal to conservative leadership. If you have a friendly administration in office, work hard to get your projects started because the next administration might not be so friendly," he said.
The challenges facing local climate change action are also evident in Indonesia where bureaucracy, a lack of communication, and limited funds have held up an innovative forest management program.
Starting in 2009, a government-regulated program aimed to grant communities permits to manage forests near them, with an overall target of communities managing 2.5 million hectares (6 million acres). The programme aimed to raise family incomes and benefit forest ecosystems, as well as protect forests, which store carbon dioxide and help curb climate change.
However, according to the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, only 326,000 hectares - 13 percent of the target – had been allocated for community-based forest management by the end of 2013.
Bureaucracy and budget are the major holdups. The community-based forest management programme is held back by a small budget of 21 billion Indonesian rupiah ($1.8 million), which is less than 1 percent of the forestry ministry's annual budget of 6 trillion rupiah ($514 million), experts said.
It is also hindered by bureaucracy. Applications for the program are first filed with the local government and are subsequently handled by up to 29 desks and four levels of officials before they reach the national forestry minister for final approval.
The quickest that an application can be approved is 180 days, or 6 months.
Hasbi Berliani, program manager for sustainable environmental governance at the Partnership for Governance Reform, said that weak coordination between central and local governments is a major obstacle, and that better communication is necessary before the project can move forward more successfully.
Two members of international organisations who work with local governments agreed that while local organising is vital to climate action at the local level, cooperation at multiple levels is the most effective way forward.
"You need improved multi-level governance approaches, to enable local government to effectively act," said Van Staden of ICLEI. "You need the capacity, staff, budget, and knowledge. You need stakeholders from different areas, making the flow of money and knowledge easier."
"All of this work happens at the local level, but it needs the national enabling framework to be on board," she concluded.
Adam Matthews, secretary general of GLOBE International (the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment) concurred.
"If you're able to energise, coordinate and really drive as much action as possible at all levels, that really is the best approach. It's not either/or, it's a combination of all," he said.
Looking ahead to the UN conference on climate change in Paris in 2015, where nations aim to create a new global pact on climate change action to replace the Kyoto Protocol, Matthews said political actors at all levels have a responsibility to try to drive international action.
"The key question is, 'What sort of combinations sufficiently drive the level of ambition of the international community?' And the more action there is at the provincial, state, and national level, the greater chance that in Paris 2015 you will have the opportunity for a more ambitious agreement," he said.
Wylie of West Chester said that people can't leave the process of making change up to professional planners, a belief that has led him to become involved in local advocacy and policy-making.
"When I was working 60 hours a week … I had no time or interest in thinking about how to make life better for commuters 10, 20, 30 years from now," said the activist, who is now retired from his job as an engineer. Many people believe that if authorities want them to take public transportation, those authorities should make it fast, cheap and convenient for users, now. If not and "driving is my best option, then I'm driving," he said.
"But now that I've got time to think about these things I've come to realise that if everyone has this same attitude, nothing is going to change," Wylie said. "More traffic congestion, more greenhouse gas emissions, more roads to keep up with the demand of more cars."
Roberts of Durban said local action is crucial to ensuring effective action on climate change.
"By the time you get to those lofty levels (of UN climate talks and international institutions), they do nothing that makes any real difference," she charged. "They're so far from the real work that they've lost the plot now."
"I want to ensure that what I do on a day-to-day basis makes a difference, and you can't do that anywhere but locally anymore," she said.


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Springfield, Mo. — This may be the last weekend to get great photos with the 20,000 tulips at Evangel University, school officials report. Once again, the community is invited to bring kids and cameras and enjoy the beauty.
"There are still thousands of tulips in full bloom," said Paul K. Logsdon, director of public relations.
"The best are those planted in shady areas and along the north sides of buildings."
"While here, check out the dogwood trees that are just now looking great," he added. Each spring, Evangel officials invite residents of the Springfield area to campus to enjoy the landscaped beauty.
"We love seeing visitors young and old on campus," said Logsdon.
The Evangel University campus is located at 1111 N. Glenstone Ave. in Springfield.
CAPTION FOR TULIP PHOTO: Joslyn Wells helps her brother, Jude, sit up straight for a photo with the tulips at Evangel University. — Rachel (Osborn '06) Wells


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MONDAY, May 18, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Believing that you won't have a second stroke may help you control your blood pressure, a new study suggests.
A positive attitude about your health can go a long way in maintaining cardiovascular health, especially for women, researchers say.
"Targeted strategies to improve health beliefs after stroke may be an important component to include in risk-factor management among stroke survivors," said researcher Emily Goldmann. She's a clinical assistant professor of epidemiology at NYU School of Global Public Health in New York City.
Keeping blood pressure in line is a critical stroke-prevention strategy.
For the study, researchers collected data on 522 stroke patients from four New York City hospitals who were part of a stroke-prevention study.
Before leaving the hospital, patients were asked if they agreed with the statement: "I can protect myself against having a stroke." More than 75% of the patients said they did.
"This perception that you can protect yourself from another stroke reflects the construct of self-efficacy, or a belief in one's ability to achieve a specific outcome," Goldmann said in an NYU news release.
In the year after discharge from the hospital, those who took that belief to heart had a reduction in blood pressure of nearly 6 mm Hg. The blood pressure of those who didn't believe they could prevent another stroke didn't go down, the researchers found.
Further analysis showed that women who had positive health beliefs were more likely to have lowered their blood pressure than men. Women who didn't believe in the effect of a positive attitude saw an increase in their blood pressure.
"In this study, we found an association between self-efficacy and reduced blood pressure, which is consistent with previous studies linking positive psychological states to better health outcomes in the context of cardiovascular disease and stroke," Goldmann said.
The report was recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
More information
Johns Hopkins University has more on the link between a positive attitude and health.
SOURCES: NYU School of Global Public Health, news release, May 5, 2020


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Call screening has been a boon in the world of telecommunication, significantly impacting how businesses and individuals manage their incoming calls. But what exactly is call screening, and why is it...
2Talk vs Green Meadows Telecom
Compare 2Talk vs Green Meadows Telecom. Find out whether 2Talk or Green Meadows Telecom is better for your VoIP business or home needs. The experts at VoipReview have analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of 2Talk and Green Meadows Telecom and detailed analysis of the comparison can be found below.
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Horrible service and support. West Coast office and if you are on the east coast don't hold your breath on getting any support before 11:00am-12:00pm EST. Nothing but trouble since the system was put in. Do your self a favor and spent the extra money on Ring Central or some other provider that does it all.
I got a call from them in first week of september 2011. Sales rep said, you can try it for 1 month for free and we will send a $50 visa gift card along with equipments just for trying it. You need to pay for shipping of equipment. I happily accepted this offer as internation plan during promotion for 18.99 was much cheaper than vonage and they charged $5.29 on my credit card. After 2 weeks of wait I received equipment. Just equipment. No account information, no welcome letter, no account number, no phone number.. absolutely nothing. Not even a no where should I contact in case of setup problem. And ofcourse... NO $50 VISA GIFT CARD. I went ahead and plugged it with my internet and there was no dial-tone. This equipment was not working. After doing google, I found customer support no and called them. They said tech-support is not available right now. Some one will give a call back tomorrow. Next day no call. Again I called after one day and with all apology a call back was promised, but no call back. I asked about $50 visa gift card, and they said, you will get one if you use this service for 3 months. But here service itself was not working. After few attempts, I left it as it is, bcoz my vonage works really gr8. But to my surprise, they billed my credit card following month for $20. The moment I saw change on my CC, called them back, and explained them whole story. Same response, you will get a call back, which never happened. Again, when I called, they said that they are going to cancell my account and refund all charged to my card. Its been 3 weeks, still I am waiting for a refund on my card. Finally called then again, and same response, you will get a call back. And most sursprising thing, without asking any account information, customer rep said, you will get a call back. Disgusting. I asked where will you call back and what account information you have.. as soon as I completed question, call on hold... When she came back, she read out some other account, some other name... Let's see if I get a callback next day...


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This is your last chance to snag this month's prize from Peace, Love & Scrapbooking.
We've got a $15 Gift
Certificate up for grabs! In order to win, you have to link
your LO to the site by the deadline of the last January
challenge, which is February 14!
That isn't your only
chance to win though. Pop on over to Facebook and 'like' Peace, Love and
Scrapbooking, leave a comment telling them that CMS sent you. At the end of the month they'll draw a
name and that lucky scrapper will win a $10 Gift Certificate to
That's a total of $25 in free product!
Wait ... that's not all!
Peace, Love & Scrapbooking is also giving each of our regular readers a
discount this month! Just enter the code:
at checkout and you'll
get 15% off your total
You are going to LOVE this challenge! It is so bright and cheerful! I'm in Michigan and it is dark and gloomy here, so this bright, fun color combination should help cheer everyone up.
Check it out! Isn't it great?
Since this is the 5th Thursday of the month, there is not a special technique to do. This is just a color challenge... a fabulous one at that!
This challenge runs from
January 31 to February 14
Plenty of time to get your pages done!
We have to say good-bye to our Guest Designers. I am so sad to see them go. They have added so much to Color Me Scrappy. Each and every page has been just fabulous! It is my hope that they have inspired you as much as they have inspired me.
With that being said, I'm looking forward to having our next set of guest designers in March! Our March guest designers will be chosen from the participants in our January challenges. So, get those pages in!
Sharon Fritchman
Sharon Fritchman


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Genuine Hand Art Manjushri Thangka
A thangka is a Tibetan painting that is traditionally used as a support for one's meditation practice. The imagery depicted in Tibetan paintings provides a guide for the elaborate visualizations that one does in Tibetan Buddhist practice. In Tibetan homes and monasteries, thangkas are considered sacred objects and are often placed above shrines.
Monju Bosatsu or Manjushriis an important presence in Mahayana sutra, especially the Prajnaparamita sutras (Perfection of Wisdom sutras), Lotus Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra. He is attributed with bringing the insight that leads many sentient beings to Enlightenment. In all of Mahayana Buddhism, he is considered the Bodhisattva of Wisdom; in Vajrayana, he is a completely enlightened Buddha. (This is not a contradiction, but rather, a path: the Bodhisattva path leads to Buddha Enlightenment.)
He is also one of the three "great Bodhisattvas, along with Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani. Broadly speaking, they represent three critical concepts, or the three virtues of the Buddha:
- Manjushri:wisdom and insight (prajna)
- Avalokiteshvara:compassion and love (metta)
- Vajrapani:power and strength and protection.
Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Dhi
Hand Embroidery Brocade
Want to add a Brocade to your beautiful Thangka Painting? Traditional Style Brocade has been one of the most popular form of mounting as it has a greater religious merit.
Note: Make sure you have added the Thangka to your cart first.
100% Cotton Canvas
Preparing the Cotton canvas before starting to paint a Thangka. This process includes washing, drying, stretching, sizing and everything needed to make a perfect base for the thangka to last for centuries.
Natural Minerals
Thangka Paintings are painted using the natural minerals. These are firstly grind into the powder form and then used in the thangka as a paint.
Service and delivery of this first Mandala I bought from Lucky Thanka was really fast and the updates were brilliant.
This Mandala is simply beautiful and I am so pleased with it.
I am very happy with the quality of the seeds and i use it to count my mantra as it has 21 bodhi, which is so difficult to fine else where. Besides that Prateek's impeccable service and advice is an incentive for me to purchase items from him. I will gladly recommend this website to you.
Great pleasure dealing with Lucky Thangka. Beautiful and well executed pieces. Very responsive and helpful staff. Highly recommended
Great quality heart chakra attuned bowl, fast postage and prompt replies from seller.


text:
Live blog: Latest version of BBC iPlayer
Auntie's iPlayer version 3.0 showcased
The BBC is showing off the new version of its iPlayer service at a press event in London.
Major new features will be announced for the popular video on demand service.
iPlayer chief Erik Huggers has already told TechRadar that he is "excited" at the raft of changes to one of the world's most popular internet television services.
Live updates (hit F5 to refresh page)
9:15: Anthony Rose and Erik Huggers are presenting
9:16: Huggers talking about iPlayer history; "when I looked back at what it looked like in launch, I think it's already changed a great deal."
9:19: Huggers - "The service has done a phenomenal job."
9:20: "We're just scratching the surface of video on demand." Huggers believes that there is a huge increase in audience coming for VOD.
9:23: "We were probably the first that really got [online VOD] right," says Huggers.
9:24: A look at 2010 strategy - for Future media and technology focus is on putting quality first, says Huggers.
9:25: TV confined by spectrum, says Huggers, "On the internet if you buy a new server suddenly you have a new service." Talks about unlimited shelf space of internet.
9:26: "Internet is at heart of BBC's future," an important point from Huggers.
9:28: New iPlayer details coming, Film running to showcase new details.
9:29: New iPlayer is simpler, more personalised, better connected
9:30: There's definitely social networking built in, and Friends recommendations and mention of 'having programmes ready for you'.
9:31: Anthony Rose - in his last appearance before he heads off to be CTO of Project Canvas - is going to talk through the new features.
9:32: Rose: It's more of an application than a website. Home page is customisable. Modules can be moved around and this will be remembered. Recommendation system learns what you like with a 'for you' personal reccomendations.
9:34: 'Most popular' is staying and being enhanced. Facebook and Twitter will be brought into BBC iPlayer - you can have recommendations from your social contacts.
9:35: Inbox style view with favourite programmes and an update of your favourites and which are expiring. You can add favourites and it will remember between series. Nice function. Very TiVo.
9:36: You can favourite by genre - add an entire category for your favourites.
9:36: TV and Radio will be separated 'separate but intermingled' says Rose.
9:37: Improvements to live streaming. Adapted bitrate system will use latest tech that will check connection every few seconds - should get better quality says Rose. Also a higher top bitrate added. Cool
9:38: You can add favourites from mobile - remote record 'coming in a few weeks'
9:39: You can add comments, like etc to shows - BBC ID will be linked up to Facebook and Twitter - you can see the recommendations of your friends from within the iPlayer 'a complete social ecosystem'
9:41: Series downloads coming to an all new desktop iPlayer version - you can also click to download future programmes when assets are available.
9:43: Look at new desktop - live TV and Radio both added - available in 2 weeks time.
9:45: most exciting til last says Rose - it's integration of Windows Live messenger. You can see what your friends are watching and what minute you are watching so that you can sync and have live chat about the programme.
9:46: Chat and live TV integration 'the Holy Grail' says Rose. Feature coming in a few weeks.
9:47: Huggers - "There's more" BBC going to be sending consumers to other long-form content (later in the year) Module on home page of TV section of BBC Online to ITV Player, 4OD, Clic, Demand Five and SeeSaw.
9:48: "No sharing of technology, no syndication of content" just meta data - hear that Competition Commission? Huggers keen to surface other people's content. We send user to website where it gets consumed.
9:50: iPlayer is going live NOW in beta. There's a promotional banner to take you through to the beta - formal launch is end of June, early July
9:51: Huggers says Sky are considering being included in the module. Huggers believes search will be improved even further. Partners will appear on EPG module.
9:54: Live Messenger chose because it was the largest, will be rolled out to other chats. 'A toe in the water,' says Huggers.
9:56: "If you do like a Channel 4 programme - you can add to favourites and it will then alert you and send you off to 4OD when you click on it" Huggers says. Nice functionality.
9:56: BBC "doesn't need its own social network," says Huggers. "We integrate and link through to 3rd party so we don't have to build it."
9:58: Downloaded content details: rules stay same - 30 days storage, once you start 7 days to watch it, download is that computer only.
10:00: "BBC Global iPlayer is still a priority," says Huggers.
10:01: Google TV "An interesting new product that shows level of competition in the marketplace," says Huggers. "I welcome Google TV personally, I see Google TV as a fantastic receiver for iPlayer. Our goal and mission is very clear - we want to make our services available on a platform neutral basis."
10:03: BBC ID has been modernised and improved, and you can link it to Facebook and Twitter.
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Shattering the 'copper or optics' paradigm: humble plastic could become key material in race to conquer AI data center market - it is cheaper, lighter, thinner and more power efficient
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By Craig Hale


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Many faiths have within their membership an order of the church militant, be they holy knights or dark warriors, who put their lives and immortal souls on the line for their faith. They are paragons of battle, eschewing sermons for steel. These men and women are living conduits of divine power, down to their very blood, which they happily shed in a moment if it brings greater glory to their deity or judgment upon heretics, infidels, and all enemies of the faith.
Holy vindicators are usually clerics or fighter/clerics, though many paladins (or even paladin/clerics) are drawn to this class as well. In all cases, the class offers a further opportunity to fuse and refine their martial and ministerial powers and role.
Role: The holy vindicator has substantial spellcasting ability, though not so much as a focused cleric or paladin. His combat skills are considerable and his healing powers prodigious, and those whose religious views align well with the vindicator will find a ready ally.
Alignment: While lawful vindicators are somewhat more common, vindicators may be of any alignment.
Hit Die: d10.
To qualify to become a holy vindicator, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus: +5.
Special: Channel energy class feature.
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks.
Feats: Alignment Channel or Elemental Channel.
Spells: Able to cast 1st-level divine spells.
The vindicator's class skills are Climb (Str), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Swim (Str).
Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special | SpellsSpells per Day |
1st | +1 | +1 | +0 | +1 | Channel energy, vindicator's shield | — |
2nd | +2 | +1 | +1 | +1 | Stigmata | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
3rd | +3 | +2 | +1 | +2 | Faith healing (empower) | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
4th | +4 | +2 | +1 | +2 | Divine wrath | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
5th | +5 | +3 | +2 | +3 | Bloodfire, Channel Smite | — |
6th | +6 | +3 | +2 | +3 | Versatile channel | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
7th | +7 | +4 | +2 | +4 | Divine judgment | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
8th | +8 | +4 | +3 | +4 | Faith healing (maximize) | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
9th | +9 | +5 | +3 | +5 | Bloodrain | — |
10th | +10 | +5 | +3 | +5 | Divine retribution | +1 level of divine spellcasting class |
The following are class features of the holy vindicator prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A vindicator is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and all armor and shields (except tower shields).
Spells per Day: At the indicated levels, a vindicator gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain other benefits of that class other than spells per day, spells known, and an increased effective level of spellcasting. If he had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a vindicator, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.
Channel Energy (Su): The vindicator's class level stacks with levels in any other class that grants the channel energy ability.
Vindicator's Shield (Su): A vindicator can channel energy into his shield as a standard action; when worn, the shield gives the vindicator a sacred bonus (if positive energy) or profane bonus (if negative energy) to his Armor Class equal to the number of dice of the vindicator's channel energy. This bonus lasts for 24 hours or until the vindicator is struck in combat, whichever comes first. The shield does not provide this bonus to any other wielder, but the vindicator does not need to be holding the shield for it to retain this power.
Stigmata (Su): A vindicator willingly gives his blood in service to his faith, and is marked by scarified wounds appropriate to his deity. He may stop or start the flow of blood by force of will as a standard action; at 6th level it becomes a move action, and at 10th level it becomes a swift action. Activating stigmata causes bleed damage equal to half the vindicator's class level, and this bleed damage is not halted by curative magic. While the stigmata are bleeding, the vindicator gains a sacred bonus (if he channels positive energy) or profane bonus (if he channels negative energy) equal to half his class level. Each time he activates his stigmata, the vindicator decides if the bonus applies to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, Armor Class, caster level checks, or saving throws; to change what the bonus applies to, the vindicator must deactivate and reactivate his stigmata.
While his stigmata are bleeding, the vindicator ignores blood drain and bleed damage from any other source and can use bleed or stabilize at will as a standard action.
Faith Healing (Su): At 3rd level, any cure wounds spells a vindicator casts on himself are automatically empowered as if by the Empower Spell feat, except they do not use higher spell level slots or an increased casting time. If the vindicator targets himself with a cure spell that affects multiple creatures, this ability only applies to himself. At 8th level, these healing spells are maximized rather than empowered.
Divine Wrath (Sp): At 4th level, when a vindicator confirms a critical hit, he may sacrifice a prepared 1st-level spell or available 1st-level spell slot to invoke doom upon the target as an immediate action (using the vindicator's caster level). The save DC is increased by +2 if his weapon has a ×3 damage multiplier, or by +4 if it is ×4. The vindicator can also use this ability in response to being critically hit, even if the attack incapacitates or kills the vindicator.
Bloodfire (Su): At 5th level, while a vindicator's stigmata are bleeding, his blood runs down his weapons like sacred or profane liquid energy; when he uses Channel Smite, the damage increases by 1d6, and if the target fails its save, it is sickened and takes 1d6 points of bleed damage each round on its turn. The target can attempt a new save every round to end the sickened and bleed effects.
Channel Smite: At 5th level, a vindicator gains Channel Smite as a bonus feat.
Versatile Channel (Su): At 6th level, a vindicator's channel energy can instead affect a 30-foot cone or a 120-foot line.
Divine Judgment (Sp): At 7th level, when a vindicator's melee attack reduces a creature to –1 or fewer hit points, he may sacrifice a prepared 2nd-level spell or available 2nd-level spell slot to invoke death knell upon the target as an immediate action (using the vindicator's caster level). As vindicators mete out divine judgment, this is not an evil act. The save DC increases by +2 if his weapon has a ×3 critical multiplier, or by +4 if it is ×4.
Bloodrain (Su): At 9th level, while his stigmata are bleeding, the vindicator's harmful channeled energy is accompanied by a burst of sacred or profane liquid energy, increasing the damage by 1d6. Creatures failing their saves against the channeled energy become sickened and take 1d6 points of bleed damage each round. Affected creatures can attempt a new save every round to end the sickened and bleed effects.
Divine Retribution (Sp): At 10th level, when a vindicator confirms a critical hit, he may sacrifice a prepared 3rd-level spell or available 3rd-level spell slot to invoke bestow curse upon the target as an immediate action (using the vindicator's caster level). The save DC increases by +2 if his weapon has a ×3 critical multiplier, or by +4 if it is ×4. The vindicator can also use this ability in response to being critically hit, even if the attack incapacitates or kills the vindicator.


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Exploratour - Spectacular Crashes in the Universe
Even galaxies can collide together. Collisions between galaxies produce lots of stars. The Hubble Space Telescope has recently uncovered a pair of colliding galaxies. Within the galaxies are over 1,000 brilliant young star clusters.
The monumental finding of this nearest and youngest example of a pair of colliding galaxies is likely to reveal the future fate of Earth's home, the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way will at sometime in the distant future collide into our neighboring Andromeda galaxy.
This is page 2 of 10


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Wal-Mart is well known for its aggressive price-matching policies.
So an Atlanta father was surprised to discover over the weekend that the store wouldn't match the prices listed on its own website.
In a column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Clark Howard wrote that he had gone to the store in search of a new Lego set for his son, and discovered that the price on the shelf was 35% higher than the one listed online.
When he asked a Wal-Mart employee about the discrepancy, he was told that the store doesn't match its online prices.
"So I had to buy it on Walmart.com and do the free pickup option in the store to get the lower price," Howard wrote."My son and I stood there and watched as a different employee came a few minutes later, picked the item up off the shelf, and brought it back to the holding spot for pickup."
But there was a catch to Howard's clever maneuver.
"Unfortunately, I didn't get the confirmation that it was available for pickup until the next day! So I had to go back the next day to pick it up!! That's *not* good customer service," the father writes.
Wal-Mart states on its website that store managers are not required to match prices online — or those listed at other Wal-Mart stores — because the company is not competitive with itself.
"Prices may vary from store to store because each store is required to manage its own inventory," the website states. "Therefore, a manager may lower a price to clear out an overstock item, to reward customers with an in-store sale, or to compete with local merchants. It is not our policy to price match our own stores or our online service since we are not in competition with ourselves."


text:
Slimming World
To change the habits that have formed over years — sometimes decades — slimmers need in-depth support and encouragement. Slimming World truly is the club that cares. We promise every member that they'll be treated with genuine warmth and respect, and they'll have access to a support system like no other, offering a positive approach and real empathy and understanding throughout their weight loss journey.


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Some Western devotees in Vrindavan have been going to Dr. Munish Bhagirath, DDS, in Delhi for their dental care. I heard that he was Gurudeva's dentist and so also went myself. Dr. Bhagirath has much affection for Gurudeva and has been visiting him regularly at the math in Delhi. He also came to Govardhan during Kartik 2010 to take care of his dental needs.
When I left my job in the US, my dental insurance became nil. I asked my dentist who was the head of the local American Dental Association in the San Francisco Bay area what to look for in a dentist in India. He said he saw a lot of patients coming from India so he was experienced with the quality of dental work migrating into his office. He was also recently invited on teaching trip to India as a guest lecturer.
His advice was to look for a dentist trained in Germany or UK as they are the best. I lucked out because Dr. Bhagirath was trained in Germany and has German dental equipment in his office which looked better than what my top notch American dentist had.
My experience was pleasant. He is very professional and gentle person and I see how Gurudeva captured his heart. I have been serval times over the past 3 years and have recieved excellent care.
His office is in Neru Place area of Delhi. From Vrindavan I would arrange a taxi and coordinate appointments with a couple of other devotees to share the taxi expense. So it is a day trip to Delhi which can be used to do other things also.
If you are flying into Delhi you can make an appointment via email ahead of time (
You can take the bus or metro to his office. Once at the matha just walk across the park in front of the math towards the Agrawal sweet shop, and catch bus #724 to Neru Place. There are red and green buses. I suggest waiting for a red one because they have AC and thus keep the windows shut. Cost is 30 rupees, no transfer necessary. The bus travel time is about an hour. Ask to get off at the Neru Place Flyover at the Outer-Ring Road, Chitranjan Park, and then take a right on that road, walking about eighth of a mile. His office is on the left side opposite of Neru Apartments cross road ISU Darshan Munjal Road. I haven't taken the metro as a transfer is involved and I like the simplicity of just getting on and off one bus.
Other devotes found a lady dentist closer to the Janakpuri matha. After having comparing experiences with them, I decided I would rather the extra travel to see Dr. Munish Bhagirath.
Paramount Dental Care
Dr. Munish Bhagirath
L-6, Outer Ring Rd, Chitranjan Park, Delhi - 110019
Phone No.: 011-26271330, 26274256


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Eleanor's fifth birthday is only a couple of weeks away, and Brandon and I had been asking her for the past month what kind of party she'd like. The answer? A horse/LEGO/Play-Doh/kitty theme. She had a Play-Doh birthday party last year (complete with the most amazing birthday cake), so after some further consideration, we're going with horses this year. Which means I've been looking for horse birthday party ideas that don't involve cowboys and cowgirls, derby hats (as much as I love 'em), or the presence of a live horse.
Some of the ideas are way over the top compared to what we usually do for the kids' birthdays. A cute cake and some show ribbons? Great! A party on location at a barn with horse rides for everyone? I'm sure Eleanor would flip, but sorry kid, your party's here at home. Still, I've had a lot of fun using Bing to search for inspiration. Each search earns points too, with their free Bing Rewards program (even when I use Bing on my phone). I'm going to redeem some of the points I've accumulated for an Amazon gift card, so all of my searching will add up to one very large horse-shaped balloon for free.
Here are some of the items and ideas we'll be using for Eleanor's upcoming party. I've already shown some of these to her, and she's super excited!
Decorations for a Pony Party
The vintage vibe and color palette are lovely. -
DIY Horse Ribbons
These would be great for decorating, though I suspect they take some time to make in multiples! Vintage ribbons are plentiful on eBay and Etsy, too. -
Horse Party String Lights
After the party, these can decorate E's bedroom. -
Horse-Shaped Jumbo Foil Balloons
Two or three of these ought to make a big impact. -
Horse Topper on the Cake
A toy horse is a sweet, simple way to decorate the birthday cake. -
Pin the Tail on the Pony
The perfect party game to play. -
Tiny Toy Horses
For the goody bags, along with stickers, candy, and other assorted items.
I'm required to disclose a sponsored partnership between our site and Bing. I have been compensated in exchange for this post in the form of payment, product or experiences.